TREATMENT OF THOROUGHPIN. 
473 
Treatment of TJior^onghpin .—As a rule, the cases we are 
called on to treat are the better class of horses ; a promising- 
colt, a carriage or coach horse, or those being fitted for market. 
It is a blemish we are called on to remove. Not usually being 
associated with lameness, we are seldom wanted in the case of 
the work horse. In cases of a recent nature, and those attended 
with inflammation and lameness, the form of treatment should 
be rest, high-heeled shoe, and antiphlogistic measures. Nearly 
all we meet with are non-inflam matory, and can scarcely be re¬ 
garded as a diseased condition ; some mechanical means must 
be resorted to in order to remove the fluid and prevent its re¬ 
formation. 
It has long been my opinion that counter-irritation, either 
in the shape of liniments, blisters or firing, is useless, as 
there is no irritation there. The compress is also resorted 
to, but, in my experience, is long and tedious, not surgi¬ 
cal, and any benefit derived from it is transient. Puncturing 
the sac and withdrawal of the fluid is also useless, as it will, in 
a very short time, fill up again. Puncturing and withdrawal of 
the fluid, followed up with the injection into the bursa of some 
irritating fluid, such as carbolic acid and iodine, has sometimes 
been tried with benefit, but the intense form of inflammation,, 
sometimes of a suppurative nature, that often follows, has caused 
me to look upon it with disgust. Setons have also the same 
objection. The most successful method I have found in dealing 
with thoroughpin, and also applicable to other bursal disten¬ 
tions other than true joint bursae, and I have operated on sev¬ 
eral during the past year, is to withdraw the fluid with a fine 
trocar and canula, puncturing the bursa at its lower margin and 
on the inside of the leg, manipulating and pressing out as much 
of the fluid as possible, then driving the round point of the 
thermo-cautery heated to redness several times into the bursal 
sac. I found that it is not necessary to fire the other side of the 
leg deeply, and thus avoid marking where it would be more 
readily observed. I then apply the ordinary blistering oint¬ 
ment, and in a week or two put the animal to work or exercise. 
